Tag: Duterte

Gunfire erupted between Philippine security forces and militants in Marawi City in the mid-afternoon Tuesday. By the time the sun had set on the small southern city, President Rodrigo Duterte had declared martial law in the region and vowed to end his diplomatic trip to Moscow early.

In the hours between, violence and confusion consumed the community, as armed men linked with the Maute Group occupied the Amai Pakpak Medical Center and several other major buildings. Philippine Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who is in Moscow with Duterte, told a news conference that militants even set fire to some of those buildings — including the city’s jail, a local Catholic church and Dansalan college. Continue reading →

Pope Francis will bless the Philippines and its leader Rodrigo Duterte, an aide to the president said, in a gesture of goodwill to a controversial figure known for his lurid lambasting of priests and bishops.

“When I had the opportunity of kissing the hand of the Pope, I said, ‘Bless the Philippines, Your Holiness,’ and his answer was, ‘Yes, I will also bless your president,'” presidential adviser Jesus Dureza said in a video clip at St. Peter’s Square, shown on television Thursday.

Dureza is in Rome ahead of peace talks between the government and Philippine Maoist rebels. Continue reading →

The Philippines has been one of the United States’ staunchest allies in the east ever since the end of World War 2. However this decades-long relationship has been rocked by the rise of President Rodrigo Duterte.

The fiery president from the southern city of Davao took the country’s foreign policy and flipped it over its head. Increasingly favoring Russia and China, Duterte had some choice words for President Obama and the EU especially when concerning his bloody war on drugs.

This is precisely why many believe that the recent Typhoon Sarika hitting the Philippines is the United State’s way of saying good riddance. It involves the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) system and Duterte’s statements about foreign aid. Continue reading →

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has accused the US of importing terror to the Middle East through its interventions, pointing to Iraq, Libya and Syria as examples.

Speaking at an event being held in honor of the holy Islamic day of Eid’l Fit’r in Davao City on Friday, the leader challenged the narrative that the Middle East is the root of terrorism. “It is not that the Middle East is exporting terrorism to America; America imported terrorism (to the Middle East),” he said. Continue reading →

This was President-elect Rodrigo Duterte response to a 10-point wishlist presented to him by businessmen on Tuesday, June 21.

“Sulong Pilipinas,” a two-day forum held in Davao City, gathered some 450 businessmen who came up with recommendations for the incoming Duterte administration on how to improve the country’s economy and business environment.

The recommendations include improving the country’s transportation network, reduction of corporate and personal income tax, a national ID system, and improving Internet connection all over the country. Continue reading…

MANILA, Philippines — An application for membership in the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been submitted by newly-elected Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. The church has acknowledged receipt of the application and a character review of the baptismal candidate is under way.

President Duterte signalled his interest in the church in a recent interview with the Cebu Sun Star in which he said that if he was excommunicated from his own church he “might join the Seventh-day Adventists.”

Joining the Adventist Church would be a bit of an adjustment for the president, said University of the Philippines Anthropology specialist, Miguel Magnolia. “The Seventh-day Adventists don’t just baptize you on the spot. They want you to know what you are committing to. Plus, vegetarian chicken can be a shock to the system.” Continue reading…

The Philippines president-elect accused the Catholic church on Sunday of hypocrisy, saying the bishops who had condemned him during his campaign had been asking favours from the government.

Rodrigo “the punisher” Duterte, who won the 9 May presidential elections by a landslide, caused outrage in the church hierarchy in December after making a rambling and obscenity-filled speech cursing the pope. About 80% of Filipinos belong to the Catholic church. Continue reading…

The Philippines’ president-elect Rodrigo Duterte has described the Catholic Church as the country’s “most hypocritical institution” and says he is ready to take on senior Filipino bishops in a debate about their wrongdoings before he takes office next month.

Key points:

Duterte questions relevance of Catholic Church

About 80 per cent of Philippines population are Catholic

Duterte says church asks favours of him

The tough-talking 71-year-old has yet to be proclaimed the May 9 poll winner, but an unofficial vote count by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed a huge lead over his rivals, three of whom conceded defeat. He is due to take office on June 30. Continue reading…

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The police warned 14-year-old Bobby Alia that there would be consequences after he was accused of stealing a cellphone in November 2003, the boy’s mother said. A few days later he was dead, stabbed in the back with a butcher knife.

He was the third of Clarita Alia’s sons to die in Davao, the southern Philippines’ largest city, in killings that remain unsolved. A fourth was killed in 2007. All had been accused of crimes, all were stabbed and all, Ms. Alia said, had received similar warnings from the police.

For years, rights groups have called for an investigation into whether Davao’s mayor, Rodrigo Duterte — the tough-talking politician who next month will become president of the Philippines — was complicit in the killings of hundreds of people in Davao since the 1980s by what they describe as government-sanctioned death squads. Continue reading…